On Newsmax.com Grover Norquist commends Ohio Gov. Kasich for cutting $8 Billion without raising taxes. “Gov. John Kasich’s fiscal year 2012-13 budget proposal eliminates an $8 billion hole without raising taxes. Relying on common-sense spending reductions and budgetary reforms, Kasich was able to balance Ohio’s books while reducing the personal income tax burden nearly $850 million. Kasich is 1 of 13 sitting governors who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written commitment to constituents to oppose and veto all tax increases. The governor joins 24 Ohio state legislators in signing the pledge, which is maintained by ATR.”
“The Phoenix Coyotes Do Not Meet Americans for Tax Reform’s Definition of a ‘Core Function’” asserts Caleb Newquist at the Going Concern. “Mostly because part of businessman Matthew Hulsizer’s offer to keep the team in Arizona is that the city of Glendale would be required to subsidize the deal. Grover Norquist & Co. are NOT down with this, ‘Last November voters sent a clear message that they want government to stop frivolous spending and instead focus on core functions. ATR will continue to educate our membership as to which lawmakers received that message and which appear to have not. Gone are the days when taxpayers are willing or able to foot the bill for government spending on things like Woodstock museums, cowboy poetry festivals, bridges to nowhere, and NPR. I doubt anyone’s definition of core functions includes subsidizing the millionaire’s purchase of a hockey team.’”
“Grover Norquist, Washington voice in state budget” by Debra Saunders in The San Francisco Chronicle. “Grover Norquist, the affable head of the Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform, doesn't want Republicans to negotiate with Democrats to solve Washington's deficit problems or to cut a deal to solve California's budget shortfall…Norquist considers a vote to put a measure that includes a $14 billion tax-increase extension on the ballot to be a violation of his ‘no new taxes’ pledge…Too bad the Norquistas didn't go after both Democrats and Republicans who busted the budget with spending increases and gimmicks that helped dig California's $26 billion budget hole. No, they only get tough when a Republican is willing to deal.”
From the Healthwatch staff in The Hill; Norquist backs H.R. 3: “Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform, said his group is OK with H.R. 3, the abortion act, because the Congressional Budget Office said the bill has "negligible effects on tax revenues." Rerports earlier this week suggested Norquist had concerns the bill would raise taxes, but he dismissed those on Thursday. ‘Attempts to claim otherwise are not based on reality, but on mere political gamesmanship of the lowest order,’ he wrote to the Ways and Means Committee.”